


By Firelight

by AellaIrene



Series: Vor-Femme [2]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-03
Updated: 2010-09-03
Packaged: 2017-10-11 10:31:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/111462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AellaIrene/pseuds/AellaIrene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"My mother would like you." One universe over, Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan and Captain Cordelia Naismith talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	By Firelight

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by Caulkhead

"My mother would like you," Vorkosigan said after a long period of silence. Cordelia raised her head from her oatmeal, and looked over at him. So. His mother was alive. That was unusual, a classmate had done a paper on Barrayan life expectancy, and the expectancy for Vor women had not been high. Childbirth, apparently, and poor nutrition in childhood during periods of conflict.

"Really?" she said non-comittally.

"Oh yes." He went silent again, looking into the flames.

"What does your mother do?" Cordelia asked, and then bit her tongue.

"She's the Countess Vorkosigan," Vorkosigan says. "She's my father's deputy in the District, she's on the boards of charitable foundations. She's one of the most senior women at Court, after the Empress and Princess Kareen-- she's married to Prince Yegor."

That didn't sound like much, to Cordelia, but she let it lie, wanting to know more about Barrayan culture.

"And you have a brother? A sister?"

"Both," Vorkosigan said, and smiled. Cordelia thought it was genuine. "And nine nieces and nephews."

Cordelia almost dropped her bowl.

"Nine?"

"My brother Pavlos has three sons and two daughters, my sister Claudette has three daughters and a son." He smiled again. "I am the only one currently unmarried, which my mother thinks a shame, but understandable, as it's not as if my wife could follow the drum, as she did."

"'Follow the drum'?" Cordelia enquired, trying to wrap her head around the idea of nine nieces and nephews between two siblings. On Beta-- it wouldn't happen, on Beta.

"Follow me around my postings. Mama-- Mama was the head of my grandfather's communications unit, at the end of the Cetagandan War, and she was with my father every step of the way during Mad Yuri's War. And she wouldn't have any respect for the sort of woman who would be content to sit around Vorbarr Sultana weeping softly into a bottle of brandy while I wasn't there."

He met her eyes.

"As I said. She'd like you."


End file.
